and they believe just an incremental rise in the ocean levels made the damage worse when hurricane sandy hit the east coast and took so much away from us. the big question is the future, of course, and a new kind of normal for all of those living along the water. it is where we begin tonight, our chief environmental affairs correspondent, anne thompson has more on what we learned. >> reporter: well, the information comes from a group of international scientists, brian and shows we're living climate changes in real time. this july was the warmest month on record. and tonight, there is new information that reveals just how fast the world's ice sheets are melting. the numbers are staggering. 344 billion metric tons of ice melting in antarctica and greenland a year. the weight of more than a million empire state buildings, the information was published in the journal, from researchers who looked at the data gathered over the last 20 years. creating what they say is the most accurate picture of melting. in antarctica, the east region is gaining ice, but it is not enough to make up for the los